Electric heat pumps are known as conventional cooling/heating apparatuses. Electric heat pumps are usually used as cooling/heating apparatuses since they may rapidly perform cooling and heating, be inexpensive, and be easily installed.
However, such electric heat pumps have a disadvantage in that a large amount of electric energy is consumed and heating performance is rapidly deteriorated as ambient air temperature is lowered. The electric heat pumps also have a problem in that it is impossible to perform a heating operation while they are operated in a defrost mode.
Meanwhile, dehumidifying and cooling techniques have been actively studied for interior cooling. A dehumidifying and cooling technique performs cooling by controlling a latent heat load using a dehumidifier and reducing temperature using evaporation heat.
In more detail, the dehumidifying and cooling technique performs a process of removing a latent heat load by removing moisture contained in air using a dehumidifier, and of evaporating the dehumidified and dried air by supplying moisture thereto so as to reduce the temperature of the air using evaporation heat, and performs cooling by forming a circulation cycle such that the process is repeated.
The dehumidifying and cooling technique is a new and renewable energy technique in terms of low energy consumption and eco-friendliness, and has been continuously developed.
By way of example of the dehumidifying and cooling technique, there is Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2012-0022684 entitled “Dehumidifying and cooling apparatus”.
The dehumidifying and cooling apparatus disclosed in the above patent application includes a housing, a dehumidifying module including a first casing, which is disposed in the housing and has interior and exterior passages formed therein by a partition wall, and a desiccant rotor, which is rotatably installed over the interior and exterior passages of the first casing, a regeneration module including a second casing, which is disposed in the housing and has interior and exterior passages formed therein by a partition wall, and a regenerator, which heats air passing through one of the interior and exterior passages, and a cooling module including a third casing, which is disposed in the housing and has interior and exterior passages formed therein by a partition wall, and a sensible rotor which is rotatably installed over the interior and exterior passages of the third casing, wherein the first to third casings are detachably mounted to the housing, and thus the housing has two channels which are partitioned from each other therein.
Conventional dehumidifying and cooling apparatuses including the above patent application have an advantage in terms of low energy consumption and eco-friendliness.
However, the dehumidifying and cooling apparatuses have a disadvantage in that they are applicable only to a structure having equipment (e.g. an air circulation duct) through which air cooled by passing through a dehumidification passage may be supplied back to the inside thereof.
In addition, the structure must be further provided with a separate blower which allows cooling air to be smoothly circulated along a supply path thereof. The blower must be usually a blower having high static pressure and high airflow. For this reason, the conventional dehumidifying and cooling apparatuses also have a disadvantage of increasing electricity consumption.
Moreover, the conventional dehumidifying and cooling apparatuses may be used for only interior cooling. Hence, there is a problem in that heating apparatuses such as the above electric heat pumps must be separately provided for interior heating.